1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information recognition processing apparatus and information recognition processing method, which recognize identification information such as a barcode printed on a postal item or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of postal processing, a destination recognition apparatus which recognizes a destination recorded on each postal item is known. In order to recognize a destination recorded on a postal item within a short time, it is important to accurately find out a destination region on the postal item within a short time.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 11-238097 discloses a technique in which a read postal item image, which is read in advance from a postal item, is compared with a registered postal item image, which is registered in advance, and when the read and registered postal item images meet a similar condition, a destination region is found out from the read postal item image with reference to destination region information registered in association with the registered postal item image.
The aforementioned destination recognition apparatus is configured by, for example, a plurality of computers, which execute distributed processes. However, a barcode recognition apparatus, which recognizes a barcode recorded on a postal item, is normally configured by a single computer. The barcode recognition apparatus recognizes a barcode by selecting an optimal recognition result from a plurality of barcode recognition results by a plurality of recognition processes, or by applying another recognition process when the barcode cannot be recognized by these plurality of recognition processes.
However, the barcode recognition apparatus often does not cope with a delay process. For this reason, a maximum processing period of barcode recognition tends to be strictly restricted. Hence, before execution of an effective recognition process, the maximum processing period has elapsed, and a timeout has occurred. In such situation, the recognition performance of the barcode recognition apparatus cannot be fully used, and may often lower.
For example, in a recognition process which reads an image from a postal item to acquire a plurality of images of different image brightness levels and uses these plurality of images, it is desirable to start the process from an image with a brightness level suited to the recognition process. However, the barcode recognition apparatus selects images in a predetermined order, and starts the recognition process. For this reason, before execution of the recognition process using the image of the brightness level suited to the recognition process, the maximum processing period has elapsed, and a timeout has occurred.
A specific printer often prints a barcode which is hardly recognized. Such barcode cannot be recognized by a normal recognition process, and another recognition process has to be applied. However, the barcode recognition apparatus is set to apply the other recognition process as needed after application of the normal recognition processes. For this reason, before execution of the other recognition process, the maximum processing period has elapsed, and a timeout has occurred.